Colby Fire Update

GLENDORA(CNS) - Firefighters worked through the night to improve the 78 percent containment line around the five-day-old fire in the San Gabriel foothills above Glendora, U.S.Forest Service officials said.

The Colby Fire affected neighborhoods along the steep mountain slopes on ridges between Glendora and the San GabrielRiverCanyon in the AngelesNational Forest. It has scorched 1,906 acres, destroyed five homes, damaged 17 others and injured three people.

Containment lines still have to be established amid the loose rocks to the north and east in the wilderness between Highway 39 and the Glendora Mountain Road, Forest Service officials said.

Residents of the Mountain Cove subdivision north of Azusa were allowed to return to their homes at 6 p.m. Saturday, just as red flag warnings expired, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Hundreds of other evacuees had been allowed to return home Friday.

Full containment was expected by Wednesday, Forest Service officials said.

The fire was allegedly set by three young men tossing papers into a campfire on Colby Trail before sunrise Thursday as hot and dry Santa Ana winds buffeted the scrub brush. At the peak of the blaze Thursday, fire descended from the mountains into residential neighborhoods as 1,175 firefighters, nine helicopters and two SuperScooper aircraft were thrown into an aggressive fire attack.

The three people injured included a woman who was hit by a burning palm frond that fell on her back. One firefighter suffered an ankle injury that did not require hospitalization, and an other was taken to a hospital for treatment of a minor burn, authorities said.

Clifford Eugene Henry Jr., 22, of Glendora and Steven Robert Aguirre, 21, a transient last known to live in Los Angeles, remained jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail on suspicion of recklessly starting a fire. Jonathan Carl Jarrell, 23, of Irwindale remained jailed in lieu of $20,000 bail.